Vincent Van Gogh is definitely one of the most famous artists in the world. His art, so unique and perceptive, makes him recognizable even to those who do not have specific knowledge in the field of art.  Besides his marvelous paintings, the notoriety of the Dutch artist grew thanks to his life lived almost as a novel:  his troubled life and tragic suicide certainly made him an icon of modernity, symbol of the existential discomfort that started to afflict man since the industrial revolution. In other words, Van Gogh was the first to represent the tragedy of the artist who feels excluded from a society that does not use his “work”, and consequently makes him an alienated person, a perfect candidate for madness and suicide.  An artist who, full of distress, questions himself about the sense of life, of his Self living in the world, always standing for the maladjusted people and the victims.
At first, in Holland, his artistic production contemplated social issues. Drawing inspiration from Daumier and Millet he described with dark and gloomy tones the misery and desperation of the peasants.  These are almost monochrome canvases whose beauty is expressed through the ugliness that deforms human figures.  An evident polemic towards industrialism which, by making cities richer, brought misery to the farmlands, depriving them even of light and colours.  And Vincent Van Gogh decided to escape exactly from this situation directed towards Paris, city that would influence his pictorial changes.  He abandoned social issues, passing from black and brown variations to a violent use of pigments.  In the French metropolis, the author did not simply want to represent the world in a superficial or thoughtful way, but with every gesture he wanted to face reality to capture and personalize its existential content, life.
The fortune and celebrity of Van Gogh – who started to receive his first artistic approvals only during his last months of life - got a final thrust from a series of large exhibitions organized since the Eighties of the last century, as well as from the staggering quotations reached by some of his paintings in the auctions held in the last twenty years. 
If you are looking for occasions to get to know better this Dutch artist, autumn is the right season for you.  In the main international museums various exhibitions dedicated to Van Gogh are being inaugurated or are already in progress.  Indeed, Vienna, Marseilles, New York and even Brescia in Italy are dedicating to the great master wonderful exhibitions of his most beautiful and famous masterpieces.
Until 8th December, more than 150 works, of which 50 canvases and 100 of the most important watercolours and drawings by Van Gogh, lent by 60 different collections from all over the world, are on view at the Albertina Museum in an event that contrasts the expressive brushstroke of the canvases with the artist’s drawing skills.  Sensational pieces are “Self-Portrait with straw hat” and the countryside views such as “The Harvest” from the Van Gogh Museum of Amsterdam and the “View of Les Vessenots in Auvers”  from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, which the author painted during the last years he spent in Paris and Arles.
The second autumn exhibition dedicated to Vincent Van Gogh will be held from 18th October to 25th January at the Museo di Santa Giulia in Brescia.  The exhibition “Van Gogh, disegni e dipinti” (Van Gogh, drawings and paintings) unveils the artist’s most intimate and secret aspect.  The drawings and watercolours chosen are the ones used by the painter to fix faces, emotions and views, then reproduced in paintings.  Some paintings are placed side by side with the sketches that preceded them and in some cases followed them. But most of the drawings selected are autonomous works created with charcoal, pencil and watercolours.  An exhibition that highlights a creative and artistic aspect of Van Gogh that was always  overshadowed by his pictorial activity, although we must admit that his great aesthetic quality is achieved in both forms of expression. 
For the first time in Italy, spectators will have the chance to investigate thoroughly the Dutch artist’s graphical oeuvre.  “Van Gogh, Disegni e Dipinti”, the curator Marco Goldin explained, aims at “revealing the most secret and intimate Van Gogh, the one engaged in fixing his own emotions, views, faces, all that afterwards would have been expressed in his paintings”.  However, the drawings that will be displayed in Santa Giulia – the curator pointed out – are largely works of big format, that do not come under the ambit of preparatory sketches for the canvas and are “totally autonomous works, absolute masterpieces, conceived and realized by means of the strong material of charcoal or pencil or with the possibilities offered by watercolours.  Beautiful pages of the master’s great history, certainly not less important than his paintings”.
The third event to see Vincent Van Gogh is at the Moma in New York until 5th January 2009 with “Vincent Van Gogh and the Colours of the Night”. During his whole career, the post-impressionist artist tried to represent fascinating nocturnal atmospheres: “It seems to me that the night is more lively and colourful than the day” he used to state.  And “Starry night” is definitely the most representative masterpiece of the many wonderful evening situations painted by him. Although he worked to the life, the result is all but realistic.  Vincent’s powerful imagination transformed the night-time view into a sort of cosmic event: the sky appears brightened by a multitude of comets, that move in a vortical motion, creating a series of bright whirlpools and the village of Arles seems to be immersed in a supernatural atmosphere.   Besides this masterpiece, the Moma’s public will be able to see “Night Cafè”, “The Dance Hall” and other nocturnal pieces.
Finally, the last exhibition for 2008/2009 dedicated to Van Gogh is already underway (until 11th January) at the Centre de la Vieille Charitè in Marseilles.  Entitled “Van Gogh and Monticelli”, the exhibition is centred around the confrontation between the two artists.  Monticelli was considered by Van Gogh as a model to draw inspiration from for his particular personality as well as for his style.  Indeed, both used to portray familiar, simple and everyday subjects: landscapes, flower vases and nature morte.  (translated by Giorgina Arcuri)